Herbs for Diabetes

Herbal medicine involves the use of plants for medicinal purposes. The term 'herb' includes leaves, stems, flowers, fruits, seeds, roots, rhizomes, and bark; although in many traditions other naturally occurring substances including animal and mineral products are also used. Diabetes was known even in ancient times. The name of this disease, which is characterized by excessive flow of urine and insatiable thirst, was coined by the Graeco-Roman physician Aretaeus of Cappadocia (approx. 80 130 A.D.) and is derived from the Greek word diabainein ( to flow through ). The adjective mellitus, which comes from Latin and means honey-sweet , was added by the German physician Johann Peter Frank (1745 1821) in order to distinguish diabetes mellitus, or sugar diabetes , from diabetes insipidus. Johann Peter Frank was also who in 1790, by introducing a yeast fermentation test for the quantitative determination of urinary glucose, relieved the physicians of his time of the need to taste their patients urine. The present book highlights the use of various herbs in the treatment of the disease.